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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24366271">softer than rainfall at twilight</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirani/pseuds/kirani'>kirani</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Check Please! (Webcomic)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - 1960s, Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Alternate Universe - Historical, Dark Academia, Declarations Of Love, English Teacher!George, F/F, First Kiss, Happy Ending, Mutual Pining, No Homophobia, No Transphobia, Poetry, Sappho (fl. 600 BCE) Poetry, Trans Female Character, trans!March</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 10:47:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,617</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24366271</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirani/pseuds/kirani</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>April was going to go to college and make things. Maybe write, maybe art, maybe both, she hadn’t decided yet. March thinks she might start a revolution. <br/>March just wanted to be at her side when she did it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>April/March (Check Please!)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>OMGCP Reverse Bang 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>softer than rainfall at twilight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This was written for the OMGCP Reverse Bang! <a href="https://khashanakalashtar.tumblr.com/post/620263744937803776/art-for-the-omgcpreversebang">Art is by Khashanakalashtar</a>. I loved the idea of these girls as listening to records and falling in love to sapphic poetry and am so glad I got to create for this art!<br/>Many thanks to my beta Rachel (iboughtaplant/stevie_RST) and cheer-reader Alexei.<br/>Title is from Sappho.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Softer than rainfall at twilight,<br/>
Bringing the fields benediction<br/>
And the hills quiet and greyness,<br/>
Are my long thoughts of thee.</p><p>-Sappho</p><p>
  
</p><p>March loved her best friend. </p><p>They had been best friends for longer than March had been “March,” and she was honored that April helped pick her name with her, even if sometimes they got teased by the other girls at school. If April had been named for the month she was born in, so would March. So they became March and April, always together, opposites and a perfect pair.  </p><p>Where April was rakish, always breaking dress code and quoting poetry while fighting against the standards society wanted of its young women, March was shy to the point that some of the girls called her “prickly,” and preferred to listen rather than speak. April could talk for hours about the falsity of modesty culture, the literary greats, and how she was going to change the world once she got out of this prep school. She was gonna go to college and make things. Maybe write, maybe art, maybe both, she hadn’t decided yet. March thinks she might start a revolution. </p><p>March just wanted to be at her side when she did it. </p><p>Because March loved her best friend, but she thought she might also be in love with her best friend. </p><p>April once read her a Sappho poem and March had transcribed a line of it into her journal. Sometimes late at night, she got it out and read it again and again. </p><p>
  <em> Slender Aphrodite has overcome me with longing for a girl. </em>
</p><p>And, God, was March overcome. </p><p>That quote wasn’t the only one in her journal, though it was the one she came back to the most. Besides, most of the journals were filled with her original work. Poems about school, poems about womanhood, yes. But mostly, it was poems about April. </p><p>About April’s passion, about her eyes, about her smile. About the way she spoke and how it made March feel. There were even a few poems about her body and how much March wanted to hold her, touch her, make her cry out. Those poems she only wrote at night because they felt like betrayal in the daylight. </p><p>She was happy with her best friend and knew they would be friends forever. Nothing could change that unless she let it, and she refused to ruin it with her feelings. </p><p>This afternoon, only a week before their graduation, she was tracing the lines of the Sappho quote with her finger yet again, her record player crooning love songs in the background when April burst into her room and flopped face-first onto March’s bed.</p><p>March closed the journal and slipped it into its spot on the bookshelf. “April?”</p><p>“Run away with me,” came the muffled reply from the pillow. </p><p>“What?” March laughed. </p><p>April sat up and pulled the pillow to her chest. She curled her legs in and looked at March. “Run away with me?”</p><p>It came out like a question this time, uncertain and small, not at all like April’s usual self.</p><p>“Why?” </p><p>April looked down at the pillow in her lap. “My parents want me to move back home after school. No college. No travel. Just go home, marry a nice boy, settle down. I can’t do it. I won’t do it.”</p><p>“Oh, April,” March said softly. “I’m so sorry.”</p><p>“It’s 1962! How can they still be stuck in this archaic mindset! The idea that all their daughter should aspire to is be a wife? Ridiculous. They know I want to go to college and write and… I don’t know, change the world!”</p><p>“You could,” March agreed. “You could change the world. I know you could.” </p><p>April shrugged. “They won’t change their minds so… let’s run away together. Soon. Yeah?”</p><p>March crouched down in front of April on the bed and pulled her hands away from the pillow and into her own. “April,” she began, swallowing hard as she tried to find the words. “You know I love you.” </p><p>It wasn’t the first time the two friends had said those words to each other and they were all March could find right now. April shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut against tears that seemed to be suddenly threatening. </p><p>March squeezed her hands harder. “What’s wrong?”</p><p>“I love you <em>so much</em>,” April whispered.</p><p>Tears began to flow freely now and March felt her heart break in two. Desperately, March began to ramble. “April, you are so intelligent. You’re a great writer, a great speaker, you have so many amazing ideas. You’re gonna do amazing things, I know you are.”</p><p>“I can’t do that if I do what they ask. I can’t. I --,”</p><p>“You will,” March broke in. “You’ll do amazing things. You can still write if you go back home. You can still go to protests and you can still speak and you will do amazing things!” </p><p>“I can’t. I can’t without…”</p><p>“Without what, April? What can I do?”</p><p>April smiled through her tears and looked up at her finally. “You’re too good, you know that? A real heart of gold.” </p><p>March’s mind raced as she tried to figure out where this was going. There had to be something she could do to help her best friend pull together right now. Help her become who March knew she could.</p><p>“I can’t do it without <em> you </em>.”</p><p>March stared at April. She couldn’t mean what March thought she did. There was no way. They were best friends and they helped each other grow, that was all. Right?</p><p>“What do you mean?” March choked out, forcing herself to keep holding April’s hands even as she wanted to pull away and get space from the situation. </p><p>But it was April who pulled her hands away, tucking them into the pillow still settled in her lap. “Nevermind. I thought… it doesn’t matter.”</p><p>Hope soared through March’s veins, her heart beating fast with the thrill of it. April meant something by it! She needed March for something more than what they had right now. March was sure of it, now. She opened her mouth and fought to find words.</p><p>“This has never mattered more than it does right here, right now,” March whispered. “You will <em>always </em> matter to me. More than you can know. Please tell me. How do you want me with you?”</p><p>April looked for a moment like she might cry again, but then she sat up straighter and that spark in her eye twinkled as she shoved the pillow to the side and took March’s hands again. “March.”</p><p>“April,” March answered with a smile, squeezing April’s hands in hers. </p><p>“I love you. I am <em>in love </em>with you. I have been for longer than I even know. I want you at my side always, however you’ll have me. Please.” April’s eyes were shining again but the tears didn’t fall as she watched March’s face. </p><p>She heard the words but they didn’t sink in for a moment. “Really?” March asked, trying to process it all. April loved her!</p><p>“Yes, really,” April laughed. “I am completely, over the top, romantically in love with you.”</p><p>“Wow,” March said, her throat tight, unable to get anything else out.</p><p>“And if you don’t feel the same,” April continued, face sobering. “That’s alright, too. I just wanted you to know. Please don’t shut me out.”</p><p>She couldn’t find words, couldn’t tell April how much she meant, how much she wanted all the things April had just said, but she had to say something! She had to say anything to stop the heartbreak she could see on April’s face.</p><p>But April was the one with the spoken words, not March. March was the one who wrote secret poems in her journal and never said anything out loud. She didn’t have that courage, usually. But for April, she could find it. </p><p>“I love you, too,” March told April, her best friend and love of her life. “So incredibly much.”</p><p>April dropped her hands and for a moment March panicked, but then April’s hands found her face instead and pulled her up to meet her own. March felt the world tilt beneath her as their lips met and she leaned into the kiss as though all of the air in the world was in April’s mouth.</p><p>At first, they just pressed their lips together, then March moved hers, and April opened her mouth in a soft whine. Everything was April: the taste of her lips and tongue sweet as morning dew, the feeling of her hips under March’s hands as soft as rose petals, the heavy breathing that filled the otherwise silent room like a spring storm. </p><p>March crawled up on the bed with April, desperate not to break contact as she moved, and soon they were pressed to each other, legs tangling together as they fell over the side of the bed and arms holding each other close. </p><p>“April,” March breathed.</p><p>“I’m here,” April answered, trailing kisses down April’s neck. </p><p>“What now?” March asked.</p><p>April pulled away and looked up at her. </p><p>“What do we do?”</p><p>April considered her for a moment. “We could still run away,” she offered. “I don’t think this is what my parents had in mind when they said they wanted me to settle down.”</p><p>March smiled sadly. As much as April wanted to, there had to be a better way. They could still change the world, side by side, without destroying any chance April had of maintaining a decent relationship with her parents. </p><p>“What if… What if we both went home. Your home. You said you didn’t want to settle down with a man, but how about settling down with me?”</p><p>Now it was April’s turn to ask, “what do you mean?”</p><p>March took her hands again. “We go back to Baltimore, we get a place together. Set up a home together. We show your parents we’re serious. Then we go to school together. Local, so they can’t complain. We take classes together, the same as now. Read together every night. Write together every morning.”</p><p>It was strange, letting all of her deepest desires out into the air like this, all the strange yearnings of her heart spoken aloud like they were something she could have. Something April wanted, too.</p><p>But April wasn’t speaking, their usual roles swapped suddenly, and March tensed as she realized it. Had she read this wrong? </p><p>In the background, the record finished and the needle thumped slowly at the edge of it. March reached out to stop it out of habit, then looked back at April, hoping she would say something soon.</p><p>“You’ve thought a lot about this, haven’t you?”</p><p>Was that all?</p><p>“Darling, I have filled so many journals with you.”</p><p>April’s cheeks darkened and her eyes widened. “You have?”</p><p>March smiled softly and stood from the bed, picking out her most recent journal from the shelf and flipping through until she found something she thought would be appropriate to share. She found a poem she’d called “morning” and handed it over. </p><p>As April read the poem, her eyes darting down the page and then moving back to the top and rereading, March thought back to writing the poem. It had been late at night and April had asked her earlier what she wanted to do after school earlier that day.</p><p>Her mind had raced with possibilities, none of them feasible, because her desires were to write poems about April for the rest of their lives, preferably sitting by her side in a modest home as they grew old together. They’d have a garden and the whole house would be bursting with books by authors modern and old, maybe even some written by the two of them, if they were lucky. </p><p>So she wrote about it. About waking up with her love and immortalizing her in this daydream through her poetry, the only way she knew how.</p><p>She had cried herself to sleep afterward, knowing she could never have it all. </p><p>“March,” April said wetly when she had read her fill. “You really want this, don’t you?”</p><p>“I want nothing more than to build a life with you. Whatever that looks like.”</p><p>“It won’t be easy.”</p><p>“It will be with you by my side.”</p><p>April kissed her again and that was answer enough for March. They were doing it. </p><p>“How do we do this, then?” April asked, her lips still hovering next to March’s.</p><p>“I don’t really know,” March chuckled. “I just know we can.”</p><p>“We could talk to someone?” April offered. “I talked to Ms. Martin about some stuff a while ago and she was really helpful.”</p><p>March laughed, pulling away from April. </p><p>“What’s so funny?”</p><p>“I talked with her, too. She encouraged me to… deal with some things through my poetry.”</p><p>April grinned now, too. “Some things? Like how you’re in love with me?”</p><p>“Like how I’m in love with you,” March agreed softly. “She told me she often wrote poetry about her love and encouraged me to do the same. To examine my emotions. To feel them fully.”</p><p>“And have you?” April asked, tracing a finger down March’s arm. </p><p>“Never quite so fully as I have in this moment,” she admitted. Her words, usually confined to the page, were flowing off her tongue like never before as if they ached to be held by April as much as March herself did. </p><p>“March, that was… that was beautiful.”</p><p>“You’re dating a romantic poet now, darling, you’d better get used to it,” she said with a grin. </p><p>“I hope I never do. I hope you sweep me off my feet for the rest of our lives.”</p><p>“Oh,” March exhaled, before pulling April back in for another kiss. </p><p>“What did you talk to Ms. Martin about?” March asked when April leaned back to catch her breath again. </p><p>“Marriage, mainly. I told her I didn’t want to marry but that my parents did. That I knew my heart and she would not love a man, that my heart in fact already loved a woman. I asked her for advice to make everyone happy.”</p><p>“What did she say?” </p><p>“That I should talk to them. Tell them how I felt. Tell them that I already loved someone,” April answered. </p><p>“And did you?” March asked quietly. She didn’t know what she would do if April’s parents rejected her for their daughter before she even had a chance to ask. </p><p>“No,” April said. “I couldn’t tell them. It felt like a betrayal to tell them I loved you before I could bring myself to tell you.”</p><p>Oh, well then she still had a chance!</p><p>“And now?” March asked hopefully. </p><p>“Now I want to tell them. I want to do what you talked about. All of it. Go to college together, write and speak and do everything with you by my side.” April slid her fingers through March’s. “Do you?”</p><p>“Everything.” </p><p>“Let’s go,” April said suddenly, standing from the bed. </p><p>“Go? Go where?” March laughed as April pulled her up as well. </p><p>“To Ms. Martin. We’ll call my parents and tell them everything. They have to agree.” </p><p>March shoved on her loafers and straightened her uniform, then let April drag her down the hall to the English teacher’s office. </p><p>“Ms. Martin?” April called as she knocked. </p><p>“Come in,” came the reply.</p><p>April turned the door handle and pulled March in after her, never releasing her hand. March squeezed it appreciatively. </p><p>“Hello, girls,” Ms. Martin greeted them as they entered. “Please have a seat.”</p><p>March dropped into a chair and felt April settle in next to her, their hands remaining linked. Ms. Martin’s office was cluttered in the best way possible: books and notes on every surface, shelves full to bursting, and all sorts of things pinned to the walls. </p><p>“What can I help you two with?” Ms. Martin tidily filed some papers away and then folded her hands on the desk, giving them her full attention. </p><p>“I didn’t tell my parents,” April began, stealing a glance at March, “but I did tell March. And she agrees with me and wants to, well.”</p><p>“I want to stay with her however she’ll have me,” March finished for her. </p><p>“That’s wonderful to hear, girls,” Ms. Martin smiled. “I’m so glad you’ve found each other. Is there something I can do?”</p><p>April nodded before continuing. “I want to tell them properly and I’d like it if you were there with me. You’ve been so inspirational to me, Ms. Martin, I can’t express my thanks enough.”</p><p>March squeezed her hand and April squeezed back as they both watched their teacher. She pulled a handkerchief from her desk drawer and wiped at her eyes quickly. </p><p>“Have I told you girls about my love?” Ms. Martin asked. </p><p>March stole a glance at April and found her already looking back with equal bewilderment. She most certainly had not known about a love!</p><p>“The reason I encouraged you, March, to explore your love through your writing, and you, April, to put your feelings about marriage into words, is that I’ve been there, too. When I was a young woman, I fell in love with someone. Another girl, in fact.”</p><p>March felt her breath leave her lungs in a rush.</p><p>“We spent so long not acknowledging each other’s love, each other’s desires, that by the time we did it was almost too late.”</p><p>“What happened?” April asked, leaning forward as March fell backward in her own chair. </p><p>“She was engaged to someone else. A man her parents approved of but she didn’t love. She called it off at the last moment and we’ve… well we’ve been together ever since.”</p><p>“Oh,” March sighed. “That’s so romantic.”</p><p>“When you asked me about marriage versus love, April, I thought of that, too. That sometimes you want to marry but you can’t marry who you want. And is it any less to commit to that person without a ceremony in a church? Without a piece of paper? I don’t think so.” Ms. Martin smiled at them again, so soft and kind, that March thought she felt the love, too.</p><p>“And you’re still together?” March asked, needing to know. </p><p>“We are. She’s the light of my life and means more to me than any husband ever could,” Ms. Martin said. </p><p>That will be us, someday, March thought to herself. </p><p>“Will you help me call them?” April asked. </p><p>“Of course,” Ms. Martin answered, reaching for the phone on her desk and turning it towards April to dial her parent’s number. </p><p>March watched April’s fingers as they spin each digit into the phone and marveled at the fact that she could hold those hands for the rest of their lives. April pressed the receiver to her ear and the room fell silent save for the hum of the ringtone. </p><p>A voice sounded on the other end and April took a deep breath. “Hello Mom, it’s me.”</p><p>March listened as they traded pleasantries. Then April squeezed her hand again. </p><p>“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about.” A pause. “I don’t want to come home and marry Doug. I’m already in love.” A pause, then more speaking. “Mom, wait. It’s March.”</p><p>“What?” The word comes loudly and clearly enough over the line that everyone in the room hears it. </p><p>“March and I are in love. And she’s willing to move home with me, go to school in Baltimore, anything, to stay with me. I just hope you and Pop can understand.”</p><p>There was another pause on the line before April’s mom spoke again, slow and soft, and April squeezed on March’s hand harder. </p><p>“Yes, I know, we know, what we’re doing. We want this,” April said after a moment. “We talked to…” She trailed off.</p><p>“You can tell her,” Ms. Martin cut in. “I don’t mind.”</p><p>More voices on the phone.</p><p>“It’s Ms. Martin. Our English teacher.”</p><p>April listened for another moment before holding the receiver out to Ms. Martin. “She wants to speak with you.”</p><p>Confidently, Ms. Martin took the phone. “Hello Mrs. Rogers.” A pause. “Yes, I’ve talked to both of them. They seem very dedicated to each other.” Another beat. “I’m so glad to hear that.” That sounded good! “Wonderful, thank you so much. Would you like to speak to April again?” April grinned at her and leaned forward, ready to take the receiver. “Alright, I’ll tell her. Thank you Mrs. Rogers.”</p><p>Ms. Martin hung up the phone and smiled at April and March. “She’s agreed to you two moving home and applying for school in Baltimore. But she wants you both on your best behavior and earning good grades throughout college, no tomfoolery.”</p><p>April stood quickly, pulling March with her. “Really?”</p><p>“I know you two will do great things,” Ms. Martin said, looking up at them. “I’m so proud to have helped you on your journey.”</p><p>April lunged across the desk to hug Ms. Martin. “Thank you for everything, Ms. Martin.”</p><p>“Please, call me George.”</p><p>“Thank you, George,” March replied, reaching across the desk to grasp her hand. George covered March’s hand with both of her own and smiled gently at her. </p><p>April tugged her in for a hug and she gladly wrapped herself around her best friend, her love, her person. She relished the feeling of April in her arms and buried her face in her hair. </p><p>“I love you so much,” March whispered. </p><p>April looked up at her, tears shining in her eyes. “I love you, too.” The next moment, April had pressed up on her toes and was kissing March again, soft and sweet and lovely as ever. They could do this, they were doing this, together.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I hope you enjoyed it! You can find me on tumblr at <a href="https://willdexpoindexter.tumblr.com/">willdexpoindexter</a>.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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